"Andy is a prolific producer,” Halford said. “He lives in his studio back home in Derbyshire. That's what he does — he gets up in the morning and goes to the studio and there it is; that's his life. So we're tremendously grateful to Andy for stepping away from that and standing in Glenn's place for the Firepower tour."

Halford did indicate that Sneap is committed to helping the band fulfill its touring commitments, which are “going to be [running] through the rest of this year and most of next year as well.”

“Where we go from that, we can't even look and see,” Halford noted. “We're just very happy to have Andy with us. Glenn's happy to have Andy doing his parts on stage for him. Andy's carved out his own little kind of way of expressing himself, he plays the songs really well, and the fans have accepted him for doing something very generous. So it's a feel-good story, definitely."

Judas Priest are currently on a dual-headlining tour with Deep Purple that lasts through Sept. 30.